Taoz

My Head was fine post op (butI had already phased out caffeine the previous month). I got hit with a nasty headache on my fourth day in hospital, but I am pretty certain it was because I ate some of the soups they gave me the previous afternoon and evening (which I had originally been told were made with "real stock" but was later told they were "reconstituted soups" hence lots of MSG/hidden MSG which gives me headaches) At that point I couldn't have ANY of the hospital food (optifast has aspartame which I also can't have) so my protein water was all I could have. At that point I made the decision I was discharging myself that afternoon instead of the next morning when my surgeon wanted me to. Had had enough, and wanted home, quiet, my own bed without buzzers going all night, and actual REAL soup I could safely eat.

It's totally normal to have some highs and lows in the days post surgery, your body has been through a lot and your hormones go out of whack. Most people have a few episodes of "OMG what have I done to myself???" and it's totally fine to have a good cry if you need. You'll likely find you feel physically better every day and that will help get your emotions back in order.

Welcome! I hope you are recovering well from your recent surgery

*waves* I'm in Adelaide - Hallett Cove... Where are you at?

lol, isn't it funny that we have to start all over again in interpreting what our stomach feelings/sounds are now post surgery. I have to keep up the daily reflux medication for a few months, then after that I they trial stopping it (I got a second script from my surgeon at my 2 week follow up appointment the other day, as I only have 2 weeks supply left from hospital).

I'm not sure, call your support team and ask them ASAP. Hopefully it's just a temporary experience for you.

Day 2 in new purees & soft foods phase and what am I craving now??? my pea and ham soup.... *facepalm* I guess my body has been really liking the gelatin/chicken-stock in them. So I'm having it now for morning tea.

hang in there, it gets better day by day. By day 3 I was chomping at the bit to get out of hospital and get back to doing stuff at home, as I was going a bit batty roaming the halls in the hospital. I actually discharged myself a half day early (my surgeon wanted me to stay 5 days/4 nights) because I'd had enough of broken sleep with buzzers going off over night and had been taking all medications orally for 2 days anyway so I REALLY didn't need to be there. The staff weren't overly keen for me to leave ahead of surgeons instructions but once I stated that I was choosing to go home in a few hours anyway they were really good at sorting out my medications to take home and getting me the discharge forms to sign etc. (they were probably sick of seeing me walking back and forth down the hallways constantly by then anyways).

A lot of people find their pre-op diet (especially if on all liquids or 3 meal replacements a day) is the hardest of all eating stages for them. I was one of the lucky ones who didn't have major issues, however I got to still have a meat and veggies dinner, and I spent the few months prior to my pre-op gradually phasing out sugar, caffeine and other processed carbs, so the diet change was far less dramatic for me than for many others and didn't trigger headaches. I also knew in advance that I get terrible headaches from MSG (including the 129 hidden forms of MSG), soy milk and aspartame so I made sure I had meal replacements without any of these ingredients. Post op liquids stage can also be pretty harsh (some people remain hungry) but I was not very hungry at all, especially in the first week, and I was also using really tasty soups I made with my own real slow-cooked rich chicken stock, so my soups had a lot of gelatin and "substance" to them compared to tinned/packaged stuff and any physical hunger I had was fully satisfied by the soups (though I was mentally looking forward to more solid foods towards the end too hehe).

Jules: the fish went down really well, but as expected only a tiny portion eaten very slowly and I was full my husband and sister both enjoyed two very large fillets each and second helpings of the special fried rice. My parents each had a single large fillet and one serve of the rice each. It was nice being able to cook for them again (as they really love the fish I cook).

because this stage for me is both puree and soft foods, I won't need to blend the fish (although it has "salmon" in the name, Australian salmon is an oily white-fleshed fish which cooks very soft when I poach is with herbs).

Oh, and apparently my belly shrank more overnight (possibly because Aunt Flo finally nicked off). These pants were still fitting loose on the legs but ok yesterday, this morning when I quickly put them on to do school drop off they almost fell down again! I'm going to have to retire these ones now too. 105kg on the scales and falling, 10 kilos lost pre op, and 6 kilos lost so far 2 weeks post op.

I hit 2 weeks post op today and get to have purees and soft foods now (but no bread/rice/pasta). WOO FREAKING HOOOOO!!!!!! *does happy dance* (commiserations to those stuck with liquids/purees only for longer periods... I loved my soups, but was really craving stuff like fish and steamed broccoli!!!) Tonight to celebrate I'm having my parents and sister join us for dinner, and I'm cooking our family favourite poached Australian Salmon (bought a few fresh whole Aussie salmon from Cappos seafood yesterday). I expect I"ll only be able to eat a small portion of just fish... but it will be amazing... and I'll try to get in some steamed broccoli later for supper. The others will have mixed salad and special fried rice with their big portions of fish. It should leave me with plenty of fish for lunch and dinner tomorrow too

I'm glad you've found this is what works for you Awesome work.

Hang in there, it gets better day by day. Little sips. (And I had to be upright for at least 5 minutes before I took any tablets by mouth the day after surgery, otherwise I was at risk of vomiting them up along with the air that came gurgling up when I went from laying down to sitting up)

Check that your vitamins don't contain evening primrose oil - I was surprised to see that my women's multi did, and I needed to avoid it for 2 weeks pre op as it thins the blood, same with Nurofen, aspirin and a few other herbs.

If you can't stand the taste of chewable multivitamin tablets, see if you can find a suitable bariatric multivitamin capsule (in Australia I'm using bnmulti capsule multivitamins and their chewable calcium tablets which taste ok). If the protein supplements you have tried don't suit you and you can't get at least 60g protein from the soft foods you are eating then you need to try some other protein supplement options until you find one that suits you. Protein waters are much easier to drink (the Stevia sweetened Aussie one I use tastes a bit like Gatorade). If you're not able to keep down purees/soft solids or are frequently vomiting and are not drinking enough water or other liquids you are at risk of dehydration and nutrient deficiencies. Please contact your surgeons support team and change to a different nutritionist if the current one isn't responsive and isn't assisting you. Nourishing soups made with home made chicken stock are what's carried me through most of my 2 weeks post op liquids phase, and I'm moving on to both puree and soft solids after surgeons follow up today. I'll be getting some scrambled egg tomorrow, and some lovely soft poached fresh fish.

The last line is "I don't want that"

Try drinking water at different temperatures maybe? I've been lucky to have no issues with water, but I've seen others say they can only have it icy cold, or only luke warm etc. Otherwise, maybe try flavouring it lightly with something that doesn't add calories ?

Is he allowed other soups? I'd be bored of broth too! I made real slow cooked chicken stock, rich in gelatin, and then used that to make some really substantial soups: a pumpkin and carrot soup, a cauliflower and sharp cheddar soup, and more recently a rich blended pea and ham soup based on the below recipe, but using yellow split peas, and using my rich chicken stock rather than plain water: https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/pea-ham-soup-2/f8ffc44c-1ed2-4d69-9fe8-8c05d7be910b I find my soups substantial enough that they've gotten me through fairly contentedly to almost the 2 weeks mark now

G'day fellow sleevers! While I'm slowly forcing down another meal replacement shake for "lunch" (even though it's almost 3:30pm now) and can smell my pot of pea and ham soup cooking away, I thought I'd post an update on how I'm doing 9 days post op. (If nothing else, it may help encourage other newbies who are frightened by posts about hunger and complications etc). I've been lucky to have quite an easy time of things. I've been obese since my late teens and stopped dieting over a decade ago because it always left me heavier in the long term, and in worse physical and mental health. I did however work on improving my eating behaviours and thinking, which made me a lot healthier (but still fat, 121kg BMI 49 fat). After progressively cutting out processed carbs and caffeine ahead of my 3 week pre op diet, I found the VLCD diet easy to tolerate and was rarely hungry, despite being on 600-750 calories a day. I was really surprised by this. My surgery went without issue, and for the most part my recovery was swift and very good. I'm still waiting to see if I get in trouble with my surgeon next week for discharging myself from hospital the night before he wanted me to leave, because the buzzers kept waking me frequently overnight and I couldn't safely eat any of the hospital provided food (optifast and reconstituted soups, loaded with aspartame and MSG (in various forms) which are both massive headache triggers for me). I had been off IV and taking all medications by mouth already for two days. I did not need to be there. I stepped down medications over the past week at home, only continuing the one for reflux. I was cleared to drive 5 days post surgery, and was back to most normal stuff at home immediately (just getting hubby to empty dishwasher and hang up washing to prevent risk of tummy strain). Like most people I'm really keen to get out of liquids stage and have some decent food to chew, but I've been feeling ok still serving up the regular meat and veg dinners for the family while I have my soups, and I haven't felt overly jealous when making the kids sandwiches etc. Today I even bought some lovely 2.5 inch thick T-bones for my hubby to enjoy over the next few weeks (I keep reminding him he is damned lucky lol). I decided I wanted some more variety beyond my current pumpkin, and cauliflower with sharp chedder soups, so I'm making pea and ham soup today and will make some chicken and sweet corn soup soon too. I'm also making myself use up more of my remaining meal replacement powder for lunches before there are far more appealing lunch protein options available from next Wednesday. I made 3 dozen birthday cupcakes for my daughter to share at school yesterday and managed to only have a couple of licks of the batter (quality control requirement ) In summary, I'm doing well, I'm feeling well, I'm being well. I worked hard over the past decade to sort out a lot of food and other mental demons and have been able to commit myself to this change fully. 15kg down, already 25% of the way to the finish line, and I am determined to be in the minority of successful sleevers that make it all the way to normal BMI and keep themselves there. I've missed out on enough of life due to my weight. The new version of Taoz will be fearless and unstoppable (except still not doing sky diving, because that **** is just crazy lol, hubby will have to try that on his own). Love and best wishes to everyone chasing their dreams of a lighter and brighter future. Taoz

Incisions are healing well, though one on the left was itching annoyingly from 5 days post op and I must have been scratching at it at night as the covering was pretty much peeled off a couple of days ago, so I've recovered with a large bandaid now until I see the surgeon Tuesday. Similarly the top centre incision I had lines up nicely with the bottom edge of my soft-cup bra so it kept getting rubbed looser and had to be replaced by a band aid. The other coverings are peeling a bit at the edges but staying on over the incision sites, so I'll assume they are doing ok too. Nothing has been hurting thankfully (except Aunt Flo the last few days had me doubled over in pain, the rotten sod, Happy Mother's Day to me lol).

I agree with above that the more used to non-sweet things you are, the more you enjoy the natural sweetness and flavours of natural foods like steamed pumpkin and even broccoli (the broccoli I grow at home turns out quite sweet). I can't have aspartame as it triggers headaches (same with MSG and it's many hidden forms), and I avoid most other sweeteners too: splenda/sucralose, acesulphemate K, and saccherine. One or more of these are in almost every sweet "diet" product. The meal replacements I had to have pre-surgery were stevia sweetened (and not very sweet) because optifast contains aspartame, and the protein water I am drinking is also stevia sweetened (and sweeter than I'd prefer). I used to have two strong coffees a day with a sugar in each, then moved to an equivalent amount of powdered stevia in deaf coffee, and am slowly reducing the sweetness now. Once I'm able to get most of my protein from meats and eggs and rarely need to supplement I'd prefer to not have anything very sweet in my diet. It makes the temptation of sweets/chocolates so much less because it will actually taste gross and overly sweet if I did have some.

As above, make sure you are getting at least 8 hours quality sleep, that makes a huge difference for me even before I had my surgery. Also, if you're clothing is fitting better despite not dropping weight, you are probably losing fat while gaining lean muscle mass with all the work at the gym (which is a very GOOD thing, as the more muscle you are gaining the better your resting metabolism will be). A lot of people who have lost and regained many times lose at least some muscle mass and regain fat (especially on common high carb, low fat, low protein restrictive diets) so now your body is working to rebuild muscle as you lose fat. Talk to your nutrionist. If you are hitting your water and protein targets, you may need to alter the exercise you are regularly doing, you might even need to up your calories a little depending on how much you are burning away at the gym?

so I just lost my lunch... no... I didn't vomit.. my 6yo son asked to "try" my pea and ham soup and then he stole it... I had to go heat myself up some more! Yay for yummy soups during liquids post op stage Love to all, Taoz